Gap Inc. has new plans to grow its Athleta and Janie and Jack businesses outside the U.S.

And it will do so by using its franchise business, which allows Gap to license its brand names to outside partners, who then are able to operate stores for the company in regions — such as Central America and the Caribbean — where Gap doesn’t already have a strong footing. Or where it doesn’t understand all the nuances of different corporate cultures.

“We’ve come to realize there is local expertise that frankly we don’t have,” Roy Hunt, the senior vice president of Gap Inc.’s global franchise and strategic alliances division, told CNBC in a recent interview. “But we go through a lot of different…